Susan Deans-Smith

Associate Professor
— Ph.D.,
Cambridge University

Contact

Biography

Research interests

My research and teaching interests include the history of Colonial Latin America and the Spanish Empire, with particular emphasis on Mexico and the Andean region, society and culture in 17th and 18th century Mexico and the Andes, the visual arts and material culture in Latin America, and comparative colonial history.

Courses taught

Colonial Latin America; Rethinking the Conquest of Mexico, Historiography of Colonial Spanish America, Resistance, Rebellion, and Revolution in Colonial Mexico and the Andes

Awards/Honors

National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 2000-2001Social Science Research Council/American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, 1995-96National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 1988-1989Herbert Eugene Bolton Memorial Prize, Honorable Mention, 1993, for Bureaucrats, Planters, and Workers - the Making of the Tobacco Monopoly in Bourbon Mexico(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1992)

T C 357 •
Aztecs And Incas: 1420-1821

43465 •
Fall 2013
Meets
W 300pm-600pm CRD 007A

This course explores the Spanish invasion of the indigenous empires of the Aztecs and the Incas and the consolidation of Spanish imperial power and colonial rule. We will examine the ways in which indigenous societies in the viceroyalties of Mexico and Peru were transformed and how their structures, in turn, also shaped the expansion and limitation of Spanish rule. What transformations in their societies occur and how do we explain recognizable continuities. How do the post-conquest indigenous societies of Peru and Mexico differ in their responses to Spanish conquest? How do we explain, for example, the eruption of the largest anti-colonial rebellion in Peru in 1781 under the leadership of Tupac Amaru, but nothing comparable in scope and scale in Mexico? What can we say about relationships and interactions that emerge among Spaniards, Indians, Africans, and their multi-racial offspring? In what ways did indigenous communities shape the trajectories of the independence movements in Mexico and Peru? Particular attention will be paid to the question of what primary sources (written and visual) are available to historians and how we use them to reconstruct the indigenous experiences under Spanish colonial rule and alternative histories of conquest. We will also consider briefly the long-term legacies of colonialism for contemporary indigenous societies in Mexico and the Andean region.

Texts/Readings:

* Kenneth Andren, Andean Worlds

* Ida Altman, The History of Greater Mexico

* Camille Townsend, Malintzin's Choices

* Matthew Restall, Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest

* David Carrasco and Scott Sessions, Daily Life of the Aztecs

* Michael Andrew Malpass, Daily Life in the Inca Empire

* Class Reader - The reader will include primary sources such as excerpts from indigenous codices, accounts of conquest from indigenous perspectives, indigenous maps, wills and testaments, inquisition records, paintings, etc., as well as articles that deal with military, religious, economic, cultural, and political aspects of conquest and colonialism. All of the readings are designed to expose students not only to the different methodologies and interdisciplinarity of research on this topic but also to the current debates and disagreements among historians.

Assignments:

*Short weekly critical reviews (2 pages) of assigned readings that will address a combination of secondary and primary sources (for a total of 16 pages; 40%)

* A longer essay (15 pages) that addresses comparison of a specific aspect of Mexican and Andean indigenous societies (additional research beyond assigned readings is required) (draft, 15%; final 30%)

* Participation in seminar debate and oral presentation of one critical review (15%)

Biography:

Susan Deans-Smith earned her Ph.D. in 1984 from Cambridge University. Her research interests include the history of the Spanish Empire, the history of Mexico and the Andes, comparative colonial studies, and the history of material and visual culture in Latin America. She is the recipient of fellowships from the ACLS/SSRC and the NEH. Her most recent publication is Race and Classification. The Case of Mexican America (Stanford, 2009), co-edited with Ilona Katzew.

T C 357 •
Aztecs And Incas: 1420-1821

42955 •
Spring 2012
Meets
W 300pm-600pm CRD 007A

This course explores the Spanish invasion of the indigenous empires of the Aztecs and the Incas and the consolidation of Spanish imperial power and colonial rule. We will examine the ways in which indigenous societies in the viceroyalties of Mexico and Peru were transformed and how their structures, in turn, also shaped the expansion and limitation of Spanish rule. What transformations in their societies occur and how do we explain recognizable continuities. How do the post-conquest indigenous societies of Peru and Mexico differ in their responses to Spanish conquest? How do we explain, for example, the eruption of the largest anti-colonial rebellion in Peru in 1781 under the leadership of Tupac Amaru, but nothing comparable in scope and scale in Mexico? What can we say about relationships and interactions that emerge among Spaniards, Indians, Africans, and their multi-racial offspring? In what ways did indigenous communities shape the trajectories of the independence movements in Mexico and Peru? Particular attention will be paid to the question of what primary sources (written and visual) are available to historians and how we use them to reconstruct the indigenous experiences under Spanish colonial rule and alternative histories of conquest. We will also consider briefly the long-term legacies of colonialism for contemporary indigenous societies in Mexico and the Andean region.

Texts/Readings:

* Kenneth Andren, Andean Worlds

* Ida Altman, The History of Greater Mexico

* Camille Townsend, Malintzin's Choices

* Matthew Restall, Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest

* David Carrasco and Scott Sessions, Daily Life of the Aztecs

* Michael Andrew Malpass, Daily Life in the Inca Empire

* Class Reader - The reader will include primary sources such as excerpts from indigenous codices, accounts of conquest from indigenous perspectives, indigenous maps, wills and testaments, inquisition records, paintings, etc., as well as articles that deal with military, religious, economic, cultural, and political aspects of conquest and colonialism. All of the readings are designed to expose students not only to the different methodologies and interdisciplinarity of research on this topic but also to the current debates and disagreements among historians.

Assignments:

*Short weekly critical reviews (2 pages) of assigned readings that will address a combination of secondary and primary sources (for a total of 16 pages; 40%)

* A longer essay (15 pages) that addresses comparison of a specific aspect of Mexican and Andean indigenous societies (additional research beyond assigned readings is required) (draft, 15%; final 30%)

* Participation in seminar debate and oral presentation of one critical review (15%)

Biography:

Susan Deans-Smith earned her Ph.D. in 1984 from Cambridge University. Her research interests include the history of the Spanish Empire, the history of Mexico and the Andes, comparative colonial studies, and the history of material and visual culture in Latin America. She is the recipient of fellowships from the ACLS/SSRC and the NEH. Her most recent publication is Race and Classification. The Case of Mexican America (Stanford, 2009), co-edited with Ilona Katzew.

Publications

Book

Bureaucrats, Planters, and Workers - the Making of the Tobacco Monopoly in Bourbon Mexico (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1992).

"Dishonor in the Hands of Indians, Spaniards, and Blacks": Painters and the (Racial) Politics of Painting in Early Modern Mexico" in Ilona Katzew and Susan Deans-Smith eds., Race and Classification. The Case of Mexican America (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009): 43-72

"This Noble and Illustrious Art": Painters and the Politics of Guild Reform in Early Modern Mexico City." In Mexican Soundings: Essays In Honor of David A. Brading, eds., Susan Deans-Smith and Eric Van Young (London: Brookings Institute Press, 2007): 67-98

"Native Peoples of the Gulf Coast from the Colonial Period to the Present," in The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas (MesoAmerica) Vol. II, Part 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000): 274-302

"Gender, Morality and Work Discipline - the Working Poor, Public Order, and the Colonial State in Eighteenth Century Mexico," in Rituals of Rule, Rituals of Resistance: Public Celebrations and Popular Culture in Mexico, eds. William H. Beezely, Cheryl E. Martin, and William E. French (Scholarly Resources, Inc., 1994): 47-77